Vamana Jayanti

Significance of Vamana Jayanti , What is Vamana Jayanti ?

Vamana is one of the 10 incarnations of lord Vishnu. Vamana is the fifth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Vamana Avatar happens to be the part of Treta Yuga. Vamana Jayanti is the birth day of Lord Vamana. It is celebrated on the Bhadrapada Sukla Dwadashi or the 12th day of the waxing phase of moon int he month of Bhadrapada.

The interesting part of the Vamana Avatar is that Lord Vishnu does not kill any demons. Vamana Avatar was meant only to see that a the power of the demons does not increase. As having one righteous demon would not change the whole set of demons.

King Bali was a pious and rightful king who ruled his kingdom with Dharma. King Bali was a demon, but his nature was quite opposite to that of the demons and was always keen in doing good to everyone. Under his rule all people were happy. King Bali was powerful and defeated all the Devas. He started to perform Aswamedha Yagnas. The fruit of doing 100 Aswamedha Yagnas is the throne of Indra.

King Bali continuously performed the Aswamedha Yagnas.Indra was worried that he would loose his throne for ever and went to Lord Vishnu for help. Lord Vishnu told Indra that, Bali was a devotee and a noble king. Bali had not done any sin so he cannot kill him. Indra and other prayed that Bali only being righteous does not make the whole demon clan righteous and the power of demons must be curbed to maintain sanctity in the worlds.

Lord Vishnu agreed to Indra and other Gods. He said he would find out a way to curb King Bali. Lord Vishnu once promised Aditi that he would be born as her son. So Lord Vishnu is born to Aditi and Sage Kashyapa. The child grew immediately to the age of seven.

He had an aura of light and was magnificent to look at. He was small in height and hence named Vamana which means dwarf in Sanskrit. Sage Kashyapa performed the sacred thread cermony called odugu. All the gods gave different kinds of articles like Sage Brihaspathi presented him the sacred thread,Sun preached him the Gayatri Mantra, Kubera gave a Golden water pot called Kamandalam etc. As everyone gave everything Mother Aditi gives Lord Vamana a Red Kaupinam which is a piece of cloth also called as Langoti. One can see that in Gurvayur, Lord Guruvaryoorappan will be seen with red Langoti or Kaupinam during Nirmalya Seva.
Lord Vamana reaches the place where King Bali is performing the Aswamedha yagna. Everyone in that place watch this boy with surprise, because of the aura around him in such a small age. Even King Bali notices this boy. The Guru of Demons, Sukracharya immediately recognizes that this boy is none other than Lord Vishnu and advises Bali not to give that Brahmin boy any thing in donation.

King Bali respectfully tells Sukracharya that even if the boy is Lord Vishnu who has come to kill him, he is ready to give his life. He also adds that it is a pride and honor for him, that Lord Vishnu thinks that he is capable of giving the almighty some thing. He asks the boy to come forward and asks him to wish whatever he wants.

The boy smiles and says that he would want a three steps of land, measured by his foot. King Bali readily agrees and takes a Kamandalam to give the Dana by pouring water into the hands of Lord Vamana. Sukracharya as a last resort tries to stop it by blocking the flow of water from the kamanadlam as a bee. Lord Vamana uses a Dharba, holy grass to clear the way of the water flowing from the kamandalam. The dharba punctures the eye of the Sukracharya and he had to move away from the way and let the water flow. From that day onwards Sukracharya is left is only one eye.

After receiving the three steps in Dana, Vamana grows in size to the extent that he covers whole earth in one step and all the other worlds in the second step. He asks Bali where he should place his third step. Bali respectfully shows his head and Lord Vamana taking away all the worlds that Bali has conquered pushes him to nether land or Patala Loka.

Lord Vamana is pleased with Bali and gives him a boon to become Indra in the next Manvantara and also a boon to visit his kingdom once in a year which is celebrated as Onam in Kerala.

Hence in Vamana Avatara the lord teaches us that he would shower his blessings on a demon also and test for integrity and righteous nature of the person.

The place where this incident of sending Bali to Patala Loka is believed to be Thrikkakkara. Originally it was Thiru-kal-kari , which means the place where the holy feet was placed and became Thrikkakkara.

There is a temple of Lord Vamana in this place which is 2kms for Idapally near Kochi.